<TITLE>Using the WWW Mail Robot</TITLE>
<NEXTID 1>
<H1>Using the W3 mailing robot</H1><A NAME=0 HREF=Overview.html>This robot</A> maintains the W3 mailing lists, and allows W3 documents
to be retrieved on request.<P>
You can subscribe or unsubscribe to any of the various WWW mailing
lists by sending email to the robot "listserv@info.cern.ch" -- see
the commands listed below.<P>
If you have any problems, requests or questions for a human being,
mail "www-request@info.cern.ch". Lists are:
<DL>
<DT>www-announce
<DD> Anyone interested in WWW, who would like information
about new releases or new online data available. Please refrain from
posting administrivia to this large list !
<DT>www-talk
<DD> Developers of WWW code, or those interested in discussions
of technical details
</DL>
You can also find information on WWW (as well as many other things!)
by telnetting to info.cern.ch (no username, no password).<P>
If you want to pick up the WWW software, then use anonymous FTP to
info.cern.ch and look in directory /pub/www. Subdirectories are src
for the latest source packages, bin for executables for various machines,
doc for "paper copies" of articles on WWW in PostScript and ASCII
forms, and also the "WWW book" which is a compendium of the hypertext
documentation of the project. To read the latest documentation, use
WWW !
<H2>Commands</H2>The commands understood by the listserv program are:
<DL>
<DT>HELP
<DD> lists this file.  This is also sent whenever a message to listserv
is received from which no valid command could be parsed.
<DT>HELP groupname
<DD> lists a brief description of the group requested.
<DT>ADD listname
<DD> Add yourself to the list
<DT>DELETE listname
<DD> take yourself off the list
<DT>ADD address listname
<DD> Add yourself with a given mail address to the
given list. The address must not contain spaces!
<DT>DELETE address listname
<DD> Remove the given name from the given list.
For all ADD/DELETE commands, mail is sent to the address given to
confirm the add or delete operation.
<DT>SEND document-address
<DD> returns a document with the requested W3 address.
<DT>STOP
<DD> Stop processing requests: ignore the rest of the message. Needed
if you send a signature on the end of your message (or if some gateway
adds one). If in doubt, use it.
</DL>
A command must be the first word on each line in the message.  Lines
which do not start with a command word are ignored.  If no commands
were found in the entire message, this help file will be returned
to you. A single message may contain multiple commands; a separate
response will be sent for each.
<H3>Examples</H3>
<XMP>
	add www-announce

	add me@host.uni.edu www-announce

	delete me@host.uni.edu www-talk
	
	send http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html

</XMP>
<H2>Subscription</H2>If you are not sending mail from your preferred mail address, then
you can use the second form of the command to give your mail address.
If you are not on the internet, please convert your address into arpa
stye. (For example, UK users please use international ordering joe@host.ac.uk)
Just speficy the mailbox, without any spaces.<P>
If you omit the 'address' the command will assume the mailbox that
is in the From: line of the message.  Note that SUBSCRIBE is a synonym
for ADD; UNSUBSCRIBE for DELETE.<P>
Please note that is IS possible to add or delete someone else's subscription
to a mailing list.  This facility is provided so that subscribers
may alter their own subscriptions from a new or different computer
account.  There is therefore some potential for abuse; we have chosen
to limit this by mailing a confirmation notification of any addition
or deletion to the address added or deleted including a copy of the
message which requested the operation.  At least you can find out
who's doing it to you.<P>
Note that although you would mail submissions to a mailing list by
addressing mail to e.g., www-talk@info.cern.ch, in a subscription
request you specify the name of the list simply (without the @hostname
part) as in the first example above.
<H2>Retrieving documents</H2>The SEND command (or the WWW command which is equivalent) returns
the document with the given W3 address, subject to certain restrictions.
Hypertext documents are formatted to 72 character width, with links
numbered. A separate list at the end gives the document-addresses
of the related documents.<P>
If the document is hypertext, it links will be marked by numbers in
brackets, and a list of document addresses by number will be appended
to the message. In this way, you can navigate through the web, albeit
only at mail speed.<P>
If you don't know where to start, try asking for one of
<XMP>
 http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html
 http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Physics/HEP.html
 http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

</XMP>for lists of futher pointers.
<H2>CAUTIONARY NOTE</H2>As the robot gives potential mail access to a *vast* amount of information,
we must emphasise that the service should not be abused. Examples
of appropriate use would be:
<UL>
<LI>Accessing any information about W3 itself;
<LI>Accessing any CERN and/or physics-related or network development related
information;
</UL>Examples of INappropriate use would be:
<UL>
<LI>Attempting to retrieve binaries or .tar files or anything more than
directory listsings or short ASCCII files from FTP archive sites;
<LI>Reading internet newsgroups which your site doesn't take;
<LI>Repeated automatic use;
</UL>There is currently a 1000 line limit on any returned file. We don't
want to overload other people's mail relays or our server. We reserve
the right to withdraw the service at any time. We are currently monitoring
all use of the server, so your reading will not initially enjoy privacy.
End of cautionary note.<P>
Enjoy!
<ADDRESS>The W3 team at CERN  (www-bug@info.cern.ch)